What startup sector expects from the Union Budget 2017
TNN | Updated: Jan 30, 2017, 10.25 PM IST
With the Union Budget 2017 scheduled to be presented in two days, every sector is busy preparing a wish list. While, the NDA government has often displayed its focus on developing the startup sector, the entrepreneurs still believe that they face few roadblocks which should be removed in this Budget.
Last year, even the CEO of Niti Aayog Amitabh Kant had emphasized on the need for the government to recognize the true potential of startups and create a conducive environment for them to grow.
The Budget, which will be presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on February 1, has sent the startups into a tizzy.
Here are some of the key expectations that industry stakeholders have from Budget 2017:
Arun Bhati, COO and Founder, Orahi
“Incentives for Digital payments is very critical for the growth of cashless transactions. Existing surcharges in uploading money in wallets or paid to credit card and debit card companies only discourage people. Expecting this budget to provide all incentives to go cashless
2015-16 has seen thousands of startups, Startup India is an excellent initiative that has helped startup, however 3 years of tax rebate does not help much as at takes at least three years for a startup to get to a viable level. Govt, should increase tax rebates to 5 years for startups, so that they can re-invest savings into the company”
Rashi Menda, CEO and Founder, Zapyle
“The Indian economy was growing at a rapid pace registering GDP growth of around 7.6% and then the brakes came on as a result of the unexpected demonetisation announcement. The decision though commendable from the combating black money aspect, has caused significant liquidity issues in the economy. Government is making conscious efforts to become cashless economy – this will be very beneficial for ecommerce businesses. Also, to reduce the imported products they might increase the IT, but GST will help luxury business survive it gets passed this year.”
Himanshu Bindal, CEO & Founder, One Internet:
“We expect this years budget to be start up friendly specially because of demonetization. Tax exemptions through online payments such as net banking, UPI, credit and debit cards are likely. A large percentage of Start-ups & SMEs in India are still facing funding shortage thus they are not able to scale up. An efficient policy framework is required to support this sector that will create swift, easy and efficient loan options for SMEs and Start-ups.”
Sandeep Aggarwal, Founder, ShopClues and Droom
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“In the coming years, internet can become a $3 trillion industry as it was designed to be autonomous and free by nature. We should be restricting rules, policies, and definition that restrict the natural growth of industry.
India must enhance various policies to ensure that capital in easily accessible to entrepreneurs. Having said that, government should not intervene when it comes to funds or bank loans. Rather, entrepreneurs should be provided easy access to seed funding, VC funding and angel funding.
source”cnbc”
